noun General Slang

Stall

/stɔːl/ · noun · slang

An accomplice who screens the thief — the body that blocks the view while the foin works.

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Definitions

1

As a verb, to stall — to screen a thief or to act as cover for the deed.

“You stall the cully and I'll have his watch in three breaths.”
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2

A pickpocket's or cutpurse's accomplice, whose job was to jostle, distract or block the victim's view while the thief did the work.

“The stall pressed close and begged the time while the nip cut the bung.”
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3

By extension, any cover or pretext used to mask wrongdoing; the root of 'stalling' as delay or distraction.

“Their loud quarrel was all a stall to draw eyes from the till.”
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Stall In A Sentence

A good foin was nothing without a steady stall at his elbow.
Two stalls boxed the mark in while the third dipped his pocket.
She played the stall, fainting prettily as the purse vanished.

Origin & Usage

Recorded in Elizabethan rogue pamphlets and later canting dictionaries (B.E. 1699, Grose 1785). The thieving 'stall' is the screening accomplice; the modern sense of 'to stall' (delay) grew from this idea of cover and distraction.

Variants stallerstalling
Tags #thieves-cant#cant#historical#british#crime

People Also Ask

What does stall mean in thieves' cant?

A pickpocket's accomplice who screened or distracted the victim while the thief worked — recorded in the rogue pamphlets and Grose (1785).

Is the modern 'stall for time' related?

Yes — the sense of delaying or distracting grew out of the thief's stall, whose whole job was cover.

How did a stall work with a foin?

The stall jostled or distracted the mark while the foin (pickpocket) drew the purse, then both melted into the crowd.

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